COLUMN: Mixed reactions to NASCAR's wild weekend

Last Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway was by far the best of this young season, and quite frankly, in recent memory.

Of the five events thus far, the new Gen-6 car finally delivered in southern California, enhancing the on-track competition at what was previously a ho-hum venue before producing a wild finish few will soon forget.

Ironically, the weekend sweep by Kyle Busch, who also won Saturday's Nationwide race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. taking over the points lead and even Danica Patrick's 26th-place finish were all overshadowed by Sunday's post-race commotion. Not that there's been much to say about Danica since Daytona, but you get the point.

Instead, the fallout from Fontana surrounded Joey Logano, who has quickly emerged as NASCAR's man of the moment.

Tabbed with the nickname 'Sliced Bread' — as in the greatest thing since — Logano had become an afterthought in recent years, with his boyish looks and lackluster results gaining him little credibility since assuming a full-time ride in 2009.

Over the last two weeks, that all changed.

Beginning at Bristol, the 22-year-old has been front and center, garnering attention for his ongoing feud with former teammate Denny Hamlin and now, his confrontation with three-time series champion Tony Stewart.

Let's continue with the misconstrued.

After Logano called out Hamlin for an incident at Bristol seven days prior, the two found themselves door-to-door racing for the win on the final lap Sunday, with both ultimately wrecking at the exit of Turn 4, allowing Busch to sail by for the victory.

The contact sent Hamlin into the inside retaining wall head-on, where no SAFER barrier designed to reduce impact had been installed, resulting in him being airlifted to a nearby hospital where it has since been revealed he suffered a compression fracture in his lower back. The injury is expected to take six weeks to heal, meaning Hamlin will miss at least five races, with the series being off this weekend for Easter.

Logano, who salvaged a third-place finish after bouncing off the outside wall, regrettably commented about the incident immediately after the race, saying; "He probably shouldn't have done what he did last week (referring to the incident at Bristol), so that's what he gets."

At the time, Logano was unaware Hamlin had been injured and has since said; "You don't ever want anyone to get hurt; you don't ever want anything to happen, especially to Denny. We were racing really hard there at the end of the race."

While the initial comment was undeniably brash, Logano's statement to the USA Today on Monday was equally accurate; he and Hamlin were both racing hard for the win, plain and simple.

Unfortunately, due to Hamlin's injury and the carryover from Bristol, more is being made of the situation than what actually happened, none of which was a direct intention of Logano.

With the saga between the former Joe Gibbs Racing teammates temporarily being put on hold while Hamlin recovers, all eyes will turn to 'Smoke' vs. 'Sliced Bread', presumably beginning in two weeks at Martinsville.

Now for the bad.

Unlike the incident on the final lap, what unfolded at the conclusion of Sunday's race and the lack of consequences thereafter is where things get questionable.

After being blocked by Logano on the restart with 11 laps to go, Stewart proceeded to instigate a shoving match with Logano on pit road after the race had ended, followed by a profanity-laced tirade toward his fellow competitor during a nationally televised interview moments later.

Fortunately, crew members broke up the skirmish before the two went to blows and FOX had the ability to censor Stewart's comments, bleeping out basically every other word.

On Tuesday, NASCAR announced that there would be no disciplinary action taken against Stewart, with John Darby, Sprint Cup Series director, stating the following: "A few years ago, we backed away from micromanaging driver's emotions. You would hope in today's world that if somebody didn't win a race, they would be upset about it."

Wait, what?

This is coming from the same governing body of NASCAR that fined Hamlin $25,000 earlier this season for expressing criticism about the new Gen-6 car, claiming that it was difficult to pass and there was too much single-file racing following the first two weeks of the schedule.

For anyone that watched the ride-around affairs at Daytona and Phoenix, Hamlin's comments were spot on.

Last season, NASCAR also fined Clint Bowyer's crew chief Brian Pattie $25,000 for his team's involvement in a post-race melee with Jeff Gordon's team, after Gordon intentionally wrecked Bowyer in the closing stages of the November Phoenix race.

To top it off, NASCAR hit eventual series champion Brad Keselowski $25,000 for simply having a cell phone in his car, which he used to harmlessly interact with fans via Twitter during red flags.

Seems like there's quite a double-standard taking place here, dependent on what NASCAR deems as 'detrimental' to the sport. Besides, allowing Smoke to blow off and take on the role of a recognizable tough guy certainly isn't 'detrimental' to ratings, which is somehow more important than credibility.

Speaking of which, I guess Stewart forgot about the block he threw at Talladega last October in an attempt to protect the lead which triggered a 25-car pileup on the final lap.

Logano's move to protect his position on Sunday was no different, except it didn't take out 24 other competitors or result in Dale Jr. missing the next two races with concussion symptoms which reoccurred during the Stewart-caused mess at 'Dega.

Both were doing what they've been bred to do — whatever it takes to win.

Turns out, Smoke just can't seem to handle being on the opposite end of the deal. Which is apparently A-OK by NASCAR.

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